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Soul Collectors
by LaVerne Thompson
Snippet Copyrighted 2018
Nathanial
A group of three men, all in their
early thirties paused on the sidewalk right below him. Their voices were loud
and exuberant as they relived the thrill of the game.
Running a ball from one end of a room
to another never did much for Nathanial. Not that he ever played any sport that
didn’t end in someone bleeding to death or maimed. Then again, it wouldn’t be a
human sport but he’d watched them from time to time. Now football, a full
contact sport, where you could whack the hell out of your opponent, suited him
much better. But these men might disagree. Even seated eleven stories high
Nathanial could hear their conversation like they stood right next to him.
Two of the males wished their friend Alvin
good night.
“You sure you don’t want us to walk
with you, Al?”
“What am I a baby?” At six two, two
hundred and fifty pounds he was anything but. All three of the men laughed and patted
each other on the back before two crossed the street entering the garage there.
Nathanial grinned at the short form of
the man’s name, Alvin was his full name. He’d pulled that from his
consciousness.
Alvin continued walking past the building
where Nathanial crouched, oblivious to his presence, as it should be until much
too late.
Nathanial continued to track Alvin as
he went around the building to the alley at the back. There was an entrance to
a garage from the alley for the condo building. A friend had given Alvin the
access code so he could park there so he wouldn’t have to pay. Cheap bastard.
But Alvin couldn’t get into the front
entrance to access the garage, so he had to go around to the alley entrance. All
of this Nathanial gleaned from the man’s thoughts. Since Alvin’s name wasn’t in
his little book, he would ignore him. Nathanial unfolded his dark wings, which
looked like steel carved to give the illusion of feathers and the very tips were
jagged crimson edges as he spread their full six feet length on both sides. He leaped
over to the next building on his nightly troll.
A stray thought caught his attention
and stilled his movement. Instead, of moving away, he shifted direction over to
the other side of the building and looked down upon the alley. There were no
lights on down there other than the little illumination provided from the
lighted windows on either side of the buildings framing the alley. However,
Nathanial could see just fine, even in total dark. He was after all, born of
darkness, so felt at home in its cold embrace.
He didn’t even need to use any of his
other senses this time to scan the area. There, hidden behind a dumpster lay a
male in all dark clothing to help him blend in the shadows. Nothing good was on
the male’s mind.
Nathanial grinned in anticipation of
the inevitable. This is what he searched for night after night for the last hundred
and forty years. A job he’d been trained for and one he loved. Souls for the
taking. Those listed in his little red book, and even more fun, new names to
add to it. A soul was going home tonight, only not the home it had anticipated.
Then again, with this act he wasn’t sure what the fuckwit thought would happen.
Alvin entered the alley. Not once did
he feel uncomfortable, a big guy like him he was confident most would not give
him any trouble. Besides, there were still plenty of people walking about and
even though this was the city, the area known as the Penn Quarter was
relatively safe.
He was feeling pretty good. His team
had won and he didn’t have to pay thirty bucks to park. He’d gotten lucky his
friend was out of town and let him use his parking spot in the building. But
cutting through the alley wasn’t too bad. About ten yards away from one of the
two garage doors that were the coded entrances, he passed a dumpster. He wasn’t
sure what made him turn, but even then it was too late.
Nathanial watched it all unfold, as
he’d seen something similar play out a thousand times before. Same shit
different…nope, same.
The first gunshot entered Alvin’s
abdomen.
“Ouch. That’s gotta hurt,” Nathanial
said to himself. He stayed in Alvin’s consciousness.
The only reason Alvin knew for sure
he’d been shot was because his stomach suddenly blazed, his insides were on
fire. The second shot he only heard, by then his body had already gone numb.
His eyes were wide open as he gazed up at…stars…yes stars in the sky. He felt
something, fingers touch the side of his neck, and saw a face, one he’d seen
before many times. You! He wanted to
shout but couldn’t get the word out. Then he heard footsteps running away.
Before all went dark, understanding dawned. The sound of chimes filled the air,
they called to him, pulled him out of his sleep.
Alvin opened his eyes and
saw…light…like the stars had grown and swallowed up the rest of the universe.
They blazed a trail from this world into the next. His body rose drawn to
it…yet something held him back. He gazed down and his body still lay on the
ground where he had fallen. A dark crimson liquid began spreading onto the
ground, originating from him.
The lighting just enough to show him
and for him to know the liquid around him was blood. His! “Nooooo….” The wail came long and deep. In that one moment, he
knew clarity. Dead. He was dead. The
chimes were calling him. He shook his head unable to tear his gaze away from
his dead form. His chest rose and fell in memory of breathing, which he no
longer did. The chimes stopped and the stars were once again in their place in
the heavens, then he felt a blast of heat swamping his back, swinging around he
saw him.
Nathanial dropped from the rooftop, his
dark evanescence like wings spread wide from his back to slow his descent as he
landed behind the slain male. He heard his thoughts and read the dead’s even
before answering him. He needed to strike this bargain quickly before any of
the others showed up.
Alvin’s name wasn’t already in his
little red book. The man did not wear his master’s mark and was in fact
destined for another place. But his violent death and desire for justice bound Alvin
to Earth. He’d refused the first call to the light, at least until one of those
flipping white wings came to personally collect him. With each soul they fought
over, Nathanial hated the white wings more. He took great pleasure in thwarting
those, stealing souls from right under their noses. Oh yes. Now, if he could
turn Alvin’s need for justice into something darker, like revenge. He only need
prod poor wronged Alvin a teeny bit.
“Yeah Alvin. Afraid it’s so.” Nathanial
confirmed the obvious. Sensing the other questions. The male was hurt, angry
and at that point in time, hated his wife and the man who’d killed him. Her
lover. Nathanial planned on fueling those emotions.
“What the hell!” the man cried at the
sight of the demon.
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